Sports Writing (USA) (EFE).- Panama defeated the United States on penalties (1-1, 4-5 in the shootout) and, after eliminating the defending champion, will play the Gold Cup final on Sunday in Los Angeles (USA).
This will be the third Gold Cup final for Panama, which failed to win the title on the previous two occasions (2005 and 2013).
The Panamanian team, with goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera as the hero in the shootout with two saved penalties, will face the winner of the other semifinal between Mexico and Jamaica in the final.
The USA were coming off another grueling quarterfinal match against Canada that also ended on penalties, but this time it was a tails-up for the Stars and Stripes team.
Adalberto Carrasquilla, the best in Panama throughout this intense and very exciting encounter, sealed the final penalty.
The game ended goalless after the regulation 90 minutes, Iván Anderson put the Panamanian team ahead in the 99th minute and the Colombian-American Jesús Ferreira equalized for the USA in the 105th minute, which brought the semifinal to the nerves of the eleven meters where the canal group sang victory.
exit scare
Before the clock hit 30 seconds, the USA had a close chance.
Panama made a blunder at the start from behind and the ball ended up at the feet of Cade Cowell, who, with a close shot, left Mosquera’s left post trembling.
The match got off to a fast pace – surprising in the sweltering heat in San Diego – but it was the USA that brought the most danger as two powerful and burly forwards in Cowell and Brandon Vázquez entered the starting lineup to guard Ferreira. .
After several initial scares, the Panamanian team settled in the field, gained ground and began to look at the opposite area.
His first approach came at minute 12 with a poisoned shot, between the shot on goal and a sharp cross, from Ismael Díaz that Matt Turner saved with a good intervention.
The USA lost steam, with less and less speed in the circulation of the ball, and the team led by Thomas Christiansen took the initiative.
The scoreboard of the Spanish-Danish coach shone in the 28th minute with a beautiful play prepared in a corner kick that ended in a goal by Yoel Bárcenas, but the referee annulled the goal for offside.
Against a USA that faded as the minutes went by, Panama added chances such as a tackle from the left by Éric Davis, whose ‘death pass’ found no finisher.
Diaz and Alberto Quintero staged a double chance on a broken play, but Panama’s dominance was unpaid and the US went into the Gold Cup semifinal halftime with relief after keeping a clean sheet.
Occasions in the resumption of the Gold Cup
The two sets recharged their batteries and came out biting at the restart.
Vázquez, after a stupendous individual action by Cowell, incomprehensibly missed a shot already in the small area at minute 52 and just after Panama responded with a header from Díaz, served by a magnificent cross from Bárcenas, which Turner repelled with another meritorious save.
Even clearer was the one Ferreira had for the US in minute 65, who received a ball very close to the penalty spot and whose crossed and bitten shot passed centimeters from the Panamanian goal.
Probably affected by fatigue, Panama withdrew against a more intense American team that combined better and better with Ferreira on offense.
However, Panama was about to avoid the extension in the discount.
Carrasquilla found a splendid pass in minute 93 to Díaz, who scored a goal that seemed definitive but the referee not only annulled that goal for offside but also did not point out a possible handball from the US inside the area.
Anderson notes, Ferreira responds
The goal that did go up on the scoreboard was Anderson’s already in extra time.
Once again, Carrasquilla, the brain of the Central American team, leaked a perfect pass to Anderson, set up by a clueless DeAndre Yedlin offside and who, after cutting Turner’s desperate output, unleashed euphoria in the 99th minute the Panamanian team.
The joy lasted only six minutes, the time it took for Ferreira, the top scorer in the Gold Cup, to tie the score for the US.
Jordan Morris headed a dangling ball into the Panama area and the Colombian-American sent the ball into the net with a shot without dropping the ball.
Almost without strength in the second half of extra time, the two teams resigned themselves to penalties in which Mosquera began the series by saving Ferreira’s shot.
Turner, excellent at taking kicks from the penalty mark against Canada, saved Cristian Martinez’s shot, but Mosquera again became huge under the posts and thwarted Cristian Roldan’s shot.
Carrasquilla took responsibility and, deceiving Turner, extended Panama’s dream of winning its first Gold Cup.
– Gold Cup semifinals technical sheet:
1. USA: Turner; Reynolds (Yedlin, m.63), Robinson, Long (Miazga, m. 73), Jones (Tolkien, m. 104); Busio (Gressel, m. 104), Sands, Mihailovic; Ferreira, Vazquez (Morris, m. 73), Cowell (Roldan, m.63).
Manager: BJ Callaghan.
1. Panama: Mosquera; Bárcenas, Cummings, Escobar, Andrade, Davis (Anderson, m. 90+1); Quintero (Waterman, m. 79), Carrasquilla, Godoy (Welch, m. 102), Díaz; Fajardo (Martinez, m. 79).
Manager: Thomas Christiansen.
Goals: 0-1, m. 99: Ivan Anderson. 1-1, m. 105: Ferreira.
Penalties: Ferreira: miss (0-0). Escobar: goal (0-1). Mihailovic: goal (1-1). Diaz: goal (1-2). Morris: goal (2-2). Martinez: misses (2-2). Gressel: goal (3-2). Barcenas: goal (3-3). Miazga: goal (4-3). Waterman: goal (4-4). Roldán: failure (4-4). Carrasquilla: (4-5 final).
Referee: Walter López Castellanos (Guatemala). He booked Robinson in the US and Godoy in Panama.
Incidents: Gold Cup semifinal match played at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego before 31,690 spectators.